US new home sales surge in October
Sales of new single-family detached homes surged past expectations in October, official data published on Wednesday showed.
According to figures released by the Commerce Department, new home sales jumped 10.7 % last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 495,000, after September's 11.5% tumble was revised down to show a 12.9% slump.
Analysts had expected a 6.8% decline to a 500,000 annual rate, compared with a downwardly revised 447,000 reading in the previous month.
However, the median price of a new home last month slid 8.5% year-on-year to $281,500 and it would take 5.6 months to exhaust supply if the current rate of sales was maintained, compared with 6.7 months' worth in September.
"Given the strength of employment growth and rock-bottom mortgage rates, the key constraint on the housing market likely is the tightness of lending standards," said analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"These are easing, slowly, but until we see a sustained rise in mortgage applications - the trend is about flat - we can't expect a serious upturn in transactions volumes."